Uncover the true value

of your customer
support organisation

1
A great customer experience helps to build
ongoing relationships, yet many support
organisations don’t have the tools to provide
personal and productive engagements.

Relationships matter. In particular, customer That study also shows that 52% of respondents
relationships can make or break a business. switched providers due to poor customer service,
In today’s always-on, connected world, where and once a customer is lost, 68% do not come back.
customers have a multitude of options at the swipe
of a screen or the click of a link, a great experience
with your organisation can cultivate brand loyalty,
repeat business and social promotion among a

84%
customer’s circles of influence. And at the heart
of every great relationship—and the frontline of
customer experience—is a support centre that
cares about customer satisfaction, with the tools
and technology to provide encounters that are
meaningful, personal and productive.
Meanwhile, Forrester
Although customer support departments may Research finds that while
have traditionally been perceived as cost centres,
they can be hidden treasures that add value and
84% of companies aspire to
competitive advantage to an organisation by be customer experience (CX)
building great relationships. With the right tools,
your support organisation can provide real
leaders, only 1 in 5 deliver
metrics on the value and nature of interactions good or great CX.
with customers.

Yet customer expectations today are high, while Underscoring the importance of CX, Forrester also
patience is thin. Market research by Accenture says that customers are willing to pay 4.5 times more
shows that a majority of customers expect customer for an excellent customer experience versus a poor
service to be easier, more convenient and faster. customer experience.

2
A recent survey by Gatepoint Research
finds that while the top goal for the
majority of customer support organisations
is to raise satisfaction levels, staff are still
struggling with systems that are hard to
use and integrate—making it difficult to
deliver a consistent customer experience
across channels and agents.

Gatepoint Research surveyed more than

100 high-level IT executives and customer
service professionals on technology trends
in customer support centres. Survey participants
represent wide variety of industries—business
services, financial services, high tech and general
manufacturing, retail trade, telecom services,
wholesale trade, healthcare, construction,
education and transport—and a wide
range of revenue levels:

15% 15% 19% 51%

represent represent represent large represent small
Fortune 1000 mid-market firms firms with revenues companies with
companies with with revenues from $500 million revenues less
revenues greater from $250 million to $1.5 billion. than $250 million.
than $1.5 billion. to $500 million.

In addition, 40% of the organisations responding to

the survey employ fewer than 25 agents while 19%
use more than 250 agents.

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What matters most?
Customer satisfaction

Today’s customers want responsive, personalized Not only does customer satisfaction rank the
support on the channels they prefer. They don’t highest in importance for these respondents,
want a support organisation that just fields but a whopping 89% say they are committed
complaints; they want help with problem solving to doing right by the customer. They also
and with making better choices. Most important, recognise customer support is a competitive
they want to feel valued. advantage, with 52% saying their organisations
win customers due to outstanding service.
Among Gatepoint survey respondents, a large
majority (78%) report that raising customer
satisfaction scores is what matters most to them
(Figure 1). And nearly half (47%) cite providing
support across multiple channels as important.
This is followed by driving revenue (45%) and
leveraging best-in-class technology (32%).

FIGURE 1:
Increasing customer satisfaction the top goal

Raising customer
satisfaction scores 78%
Providing support across
multiple channels 47%
Driving revenue
45%
Leveraging best-in-class
technology 32%

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Customer frustrations
are ongoing

Yet today’s support organisations recognise

that while outstanding service is the goal, they
are not always achieving that. Gatepoint survey
respondents acknowledge that customers have
ongoing frustrations with the support organisation.
The biggest issue is that customer experience
varies based on agent, channel, etc., according
to 54% (Figure 2). Moreover, 39% say customers
have conflicting experience across different
platforms, such as phone and email. And 17%
report a minimal presence on social channels
or lack of response on social media.

“Customers want a single

experience with companies
based on their preferences
and history, not the needs
and shift patterns of internal
departments.”

–Adrian McDermott,
President of Products, Zendesk

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Another frustration is that issue resolution times
on phone and email are unacceptable, according
to 33% of respondents, and another 17% says
customers are frustrated by their interactions
with the support centre.

Research firm Gartner says it behooves

organisations to be empathetic to these frustrations.
According to a recent report, “Through 2020,
businesses that deploy CRM technology in such a
way that it reflects empathy toward the customer are
three times more likely to fend off a digital disrupter.”

The report went on to say that “While it’s still early

days for being able to measure the economic
impact of empathy in business, it’s worth noting that
companies that have successfully disrupted existing
business models did so because of the empathy
they felt for customers dealing with inefficient
processes and experiences.”

FIGURE 2:
Uneven service the main cause of customer frustration

Customer experience varies

based on agent, channel, etc 54%

Conflicting experience
across different platforms 39%
(call, email, etc.)

Resolution times on phone

and email are unacceptable 33%

Minimal presence on social

channels or lack of response 17%
on social media

Customers are frustrated by

their interactions with our 17%
support centre

6
Support professionals
have gripes too

Increasing customer satisfaction requires giving
agents effective tools for collaboration, information
gathering and automation. That includes providing
24/7 self-service support with easy access to the
answers they need, wherever they are.
Forrester data shows that while 72% of businesses
say improving customer experience is their
top priority, only 63% of marketers prioritize
implementing technology investments that will
help them reach this goal.
Indeed, the Gatepoint survey respondents’
top complaint (45%) is that systems are hard
to use and/or integrate (Figure 3). And 38% of
respondents cite conflicting priorities/strategies,
while 36% say there is just too much on their plate.
Other complaints include inexperienced/young staff
(18%) and low agent productivity (14%).

FIGURE 3:
Complexity, conflict, congestion are support professionals’ top complaints

Systems are hard to

use/integrate 45%

Conflicting
priorities/strategies 38%

Just too much on

my plate 36%

Staff: inexperienced,
young, lost 18%

Low agent
productivity 14%

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Conclusion

A successful customer support centre can be a key With greatour

Ultimately, support will hunters
treasure come would fin
player in a company’s strategic advantage over the
competition. High customer satisfaction scores can
are looking
great for: treasure (....or a successf
relationships.
translate into brand loyalty and market domination. support center via Zendesk)
Indeed, 51% of Gatepoint survey respondents say
leadership views customer service as a potential
competitive advantage.

Yet customer expectations are high.

How can your organisation

build a high-quality, effective
customer support centre which
helps you build relationships
that are more meaningful,
personal and productive?

Start by giving support professionals an easy-to-use

platform that simplifies the tough work of customer
service and provides the tools that allow your agents
to interact with customers how and when they
choose.

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Zendesk: Intuitive tools to
manage relationships
To build meaningful relationships that boost loyalty
and the bottom line, today’s organisations need
to better understand their customers, improve
communication and offer support where and when
it’s needed most—and deliver a great, consistent
customer experience across channels and agents.
That means customer support organisations need
the tools and technology that enable them to
cultivate those relationships.
The Zendesk family of products is focused on
improving customer relationships. In addition to
providing the tools for superior customer service,
Zendesk offers products that create a more personal
connection between customers and organisations
through customer intelligence and deeper analytics.
“For too long, business software has been built for
businesses at the expense of customers. It’s been
built for department silos and separate ‘clouds’,
not the seamless experience customers expect
today,” said Mikkel Svane, Zendesk founder and
CEO. “We’re changing that with products built for
relationships first.”
In Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer
Engagement Centre 2016,” which examines the
global market for customer service and support
applications for organisations with CECs as large as
20,000+ agents, Zendesk is in the leader quadrant.
All the products in the Zendesk family work closely
together through a common user interface and
are being developed to provide single login and a
shared customer data platform. Adrian McDermott,
senior vice president of product development at
Zendesk, said:
“We’re creating a shared
memory for organisations so
they know their customers
and can connect with them
in the moment.”
For more information on how your organisation
can build better customer relationships, go to
www.zendesk.co.uk.